Edgar Wright is hands down my favourite director of all time. Everything from the way he handles exposition to the way he does visual comedy just hits me in all the right sweet spots. However, as a fan, it has been a long wait because his last feature, Baby Driver, came out in 2017. And that wait has been extended by the Coronavirus pandemic because his latest film, Last Night in Soho, has been pushed to 2021. But worry not because I have some Edgar Wright related news, all thanks to the screenwriter of one of his next films, Simon Stephenson.

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Back in March 31, it was announced that Focus Features and Working Title Films have acquired the film rights to Simon’s book Set My Heart To Five which is about an android called Jared who undergoes an emotional awakening and is out to convince humans that his kind should be allowed to feel. And in order to do so, Jared starts writing a movie while enrolling in a screenwriting class in Los Angeles. The book had received a shining review from Wright’s frequent collaborator Simon Pegg. Luckily, I got to read it and I strongly agree with Pegg. It is poignant, fun, existential, and a very heartfelt analysis of what it means to be human. In addition to that, I got a chance to virtually chat with Stephenson and here’s how it went.

I have read the manuscript and I liked it instantly. It’s one of the rare instances where a post-apocalyptic world isn’t dark and dreary. But it is a scenario that can totally happen. So, is this a cautionary tale for humankind?

“Thank you – I am glad you liked it! And you’ve picked up there on one of the things about Set My Heart To Five that I am always most excited to talk about: the idea perhaps the future might not be quite as bad we sometimes fear.”

“I love dystopian books and movies as much as everyone else, but of course they are often a little bleak, and especially at his time when our world is already struggling in so many ways. So, part of the idea for Set My Heart To Five was to think about the smaller, more human – and hopefully funnier – ways in which our world might realistically go wrong. And so the story takes place in a world where humans have locked themselves out of the internet and Elon Musk has incinerated the moon.”

“That being so, I probably don’t think it is a cautionary tale in the sense of something like 1984, which is (hopefully) a worst-case scenario. But I do agree that a lot of it falls under the category of ‘can totally happen’. And I always think that the conversations we have about technology as a society are so far behind the capabilities of the technology itself. In the book, Jared is a biological android who is created using a version of CRISPR. If that technology isn’t quite here yet, it soon will be and I think we should all be talking more about these things, and working out what as a planet we will – and will not be – okay with.”

You have explicitly mentioned your influences i.e. movies, screenwriters, etc. And you reuse them in a very meta way. What’s the key to reusing age-old tropes in an organic way in one’s script without making it feel stale?

“I think the secret here lies in having great readers! It really relies on the reader to kind of spot the nuance of those things, rather than simply taking everything at literal or face value. On a more pragmatic level, the fact that Jared is an android and therefore programmed for pattern recognition means he can point some of these things out as they occur, but as you say, some of it is quite meta and over his head – so again, it really comes down to the readers, and I am so grateful people have been picking up on this stuff.”

What’s the process behind getting one’s script approved for a movie even before it has hit the shelves?

“The short answer is luck!”

“The longer answer is also luck, albeit in a slightly longer-term way. My day job is as a screenwriter and I am lucky enough to work with some brilliant producers who happen to also be Edgar Wright’s producers. And so I was able to share the book with them, and they liked it and things progressed from there.”

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How far into pre-production is Set My Heart To Five right now? Do you have any personal casting choices in mind?

“Pre-production starts when a film has greenlit by the studio, so we are not at that point yet. There is a script, but the reality of the film business is that there are a lot of different factors that come in to play – other projects, budgets, peoples’ availability – in determining if and when a film moves in to production. So I am hopeful and excited, but also keeping my feet on the ground.”

“In terms of casting, that is really always something for a film’s director. I don’t have any strong ideas, and am as excited as anyone to see who it might be!”

What’s the process behind turning your book into a script? Did you keep a lot of Edgar Wright’s style in mind while writing the script?

“I’ve been working as a screenwriter for quite some time now, and so much of the work is in what I think of as engineering or architecture. I think – far more so than a novel – a screenplay so often stands or falls on the strength of its structure. As a love letter to the movies, the novel of Set My Heart To Five already deliberately had something of the structure of a film – another meta element! – but nonetheless my initial focus is always on the structure, and this one was no different.”

“A golden rule of screenwriting is not to write directorial things like camera angles and music unless essential to the story itself. So I think the usual idea is for a director to bring their vision to a script – including to the discussions that shape the screenplay– rather than the screenwriter trying to second guess what they think a director might like. That said, I have been Edgar’s fans for years and I am sure his work had already influenced mine in lots of ways before I even began the book, let alone the screenplay.”

What are some of the major changes that have taken place between the book and the script?

“I think this is one I can’t answer yet.”

You’ve used some of your favourite films in the story. But what is your favourite Edgar Wright film and why?

“What a great question! I think they are all brilliant in their own way, and I will never forget the experience of seeing Shaun Of The Dead for the first time. It was so fresh and funny, and really a game-changer.”

“That said, I am going to go with The World’s End. All the films in the cornetto trilogy are brilliantly funny, and I think perhaps because of that people sometimes overlook how much heart they have too. For my money, The World’s End is the one that has the biggest heart, and wrapped up in all the comedy is some serious and moving stuff.”

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Wright loves films and more than that, he loves to weave the themes and visuals from his favourite movies into his own in very creative ways. Stephenson’s writing is similar and Set My Heart To Five is filled to the brim with references to movies, old and new. So, it’ll certainly be interesting to see how Wright adapts it. The last time that he went fully sci-fi was in The World’s End which is, surprise surprise, one of my favourite movies of all time. And this will give him yet another opportunity to flex that aspect of his directing skills. There’s no saying that when the movie will be out in theatres because, well, everything is kinda uncertain now. Till then you can read Stephenson’s book which is currently on sale.

Cover artwork by Bhavya Poonia/Mashable India